Martin Luther King Jr.’s voice boomed from several speakers Monday inside the Charter School of the Dunes in Gary’s Miller section.
“I’m so happy that I didn’t sneeze,” King preached in his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech on April 3, 1968.
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A decade earlier, on Sept. 20, 1958, the 29-year-old Baptist pastor signed copies of his book, “Stride Toward Freedom” in Blumstein’s department store in Harlem, New York City. A sharply dressed woman named Izola Curry approached King and asked if it was really him. When he replied yes, she stabbed him in his chest with a letter opener.
Curry was later found to be mentally ill and institutionalized. King was told at the scene by a police officer to not speak, or even sneeze, because the blade was so close to his heart.
“If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance… to try to tell America about a dream that I had,” King recalled in that historic 1968 speech.
On Monday morning, I kept thinking about this incident during my visit to the Gary school, which hosted an event called the MLK Community Summit. For the past 11 years, the Morning Bishop Theatre has organized the event, funded by Indiana Department of Education grants.
“These children are always so grateful and giving,” said McKenya Dilworth, director of after school programs, strategies and initiatives at the school. “Today isn’t a day off for these children, it’s a day ‘on.’ It’s a day to serve their community in Dr. King’s honor.”
More than three dozen kids from across the city showed up on their day off to not only listen to King’s messages from decades ago, but to act on them.
The kids spent their day “on” to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for homeless men at a shelter, “compassion cupcakes” and homemade first-aid kits for battered women at another shelter and greeting cards for shut-in senior citizens.
Notes were taped to the care packages with inspirational quotes from King, such as, “Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.” And, “True leaders work in peace.”
“If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up,” King preached in the background. “And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can’t ride your back unless it is bent.”
Several community leaders showed up Monday at the school to mentor the kids.
“These speakers are all products of the city of Gary, just as you will be someday,” Dilworth said.
“It’s not about how many of you are here today,” she told the kids. “It’s about why you are supposed to be here. Your message of kindness will spread to others when you leave here. We need you to fight for what’s right, and we need it more now than ever before in history.”
The event was labeled “I Am Somebody,” to empower students with King’s words and principles. A poster in the hallway stated, “Honor King’s memory by serving others.”
Dilworth shared with the students her favorite King quote, “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.”
“What all of you are doing here today sets you apart from everyone else,” she said, prompting applause from parents. “I’m so proud of you.”
Darwin Kenney, a youth empowerment speaker from Indianapolis, shared his childhood story of being bullied by other kids and how he overcame the abuse. The former Gary resident authored a book, “Culture Shock: Challenges to Triumph,” about his story of victimhood to victory.
“Bullying is a disease that stays with you for the rest of your life,” Kenney told the kids. “Don’t be a victim. It’s OK to tell someone about it.”
Kenney then asked students to raise their right hand and publicly pledge to resist bullying of any kind, whether it’s physical, emotional or perpetrated online.
“I pledge to never be a bully,” they said in unison. “And I pledge to tell. Always tell.”
I didn’t intend to tell my readers anything about this event, or the holiday, as I usually do. Through the years I’ve written about a plethora of related issues – race relations, civil rights, and the struggle to overcome our country’s deepest flaws.
But not this year, I told myself. I had nothing new to say. Until I walked into that school.
“If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there,” King’s voice echoed in the hallways. “If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering.”
While recuperating in the hospital after the stabbing, King read letters mailed to him, wishing him well.
“I read a few, but one of them I will never forget,” King said in the last speech of his life.
It was written by a high school student.
“Dear Dr. King, while it should not matter, I would like to mention that I’m a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.”
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The day after delivering that “Mountaintop” speech, King was assassinated.
I don’t know what you did, if anything, to commemorate King’s birthday Monday. But, just like those students, I feel I was supposed to be at that school. I’m here to tell. I’m here to testify.
Our future is in the hands of those kids, and of all the kids in our country.
King knew this. His legacy depends on it.
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Twitter@jdavich